No ap­peal against Bala’s ac­quit­tal

The Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Prose­cu­tions, Christo­pher Pryde, has re­viewed the rul­ing by the Mag­is­trate in the Praveen Ku­mar Bala case and has ac­cepted the de­ci­sion of the Mag­is­trate to ac­quit Mr Bala. Mr Bala was charged with one count of dan­ger­ous driv­ing oc­ca­sion­ing death. He was al­leged to have driven a mo­tor ve­hi­cle in a dan­ger­ous man­ner that caused the death of Puna Chand in Lau­toka in 2013. In a writ­ten Rul­ing handed down on 22 July 2016 the Lau­toka Mag­is­trates’ Court ac­quit­ted Mr Bala of the charge. Mr Pryde said: “Although there are ar­eas of dis­agree­ment with the Rul­ing by the Mag­is­trate, we ac­cept the cen­tral premise of the court that the State failed to prove the man­ner of driv­ing was dan­ger­ous in the cir­cum­stances. The State has there­fore de­cided that there will be no ap­peal against the de­ci­sion to ac­quit.” Source: ODPP not re­veal the re­sult.” The body was found on July 21 by Savusavu Town Coun­cil em­ploy­ees while car­ry­ing out their daily chores. Shratika Naidu Edited by Naisa Koroi